In this classic thriller by the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps, an English professor is drawn into a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister. When Anthony Lammas, minister of the Kirk and Professor of Logic at St. Andrews University, leaves his hometown for London on business, he little imagines that within two days he will be deeply entangled in a web of mystery and intrigue. But, he's no ordinary professor. His boyhood allegiance to a brotherhood...

This was the third-best selling book in the United States in 1895. It begins:

"Early in the spring of the year 1884, the three-masted schooner Castor, from San Francisco to Valparaiso, was struck by a tornado off the coast of Peru. The storm, which rose with frightful suddenness, was of short duration, but it left the Castor a helpless wreck. ...

"The Castor was an American merchant-vessel, commanded by Captain

...

Follows the adventures of a stowaway boy, including his friendship with captain and crew and near shipwreck during a violent storm.

Tells the story of David Balfour, a young man of the Lowlands, the southern part of Scotland. David's father, Alexander Balfour, has recently died, and his mother died some time before, so he is now an orphan.--SparkNotes.